The Last Cigarette posts closing notices
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
LESS than a month after opening at Trafalgar Studios, The Last Cigarette has posted closing notices. Originally booking until August 1, it will now close on May 23, 2009.
Previously Posted: Richard Eyre’s production of The Last Cigarette will transfer from Chichester Festival Theatre to the West End’s Trafalgar Studios, where it runs from April 28 (previews from April 21) to August 1, 2009.
Adapted by Hugh Whitemore and Simon Gray from Gray’s critically acclaimed The Smoking Diaries, it stars Felicity Kendal, Nicholas le Prevost and Jasper Britton, who all perform as Simon Gray.
Described as sardonic, humane, intelligent and often outrageously funny, this stage version of The Last Cigarette was completed just before Gray’s death last summer and draws on his many volumes of memoirs, including Fat Chance, Enter a Fox, The Smoking Diaries and Coda.
Gray, who faced life – and death – with unflinching courage and defiant humanity even when writing about his own mortality, also wrote Butley, Otherwise Engaged, Quatermaine’s Terms, Hidden Laughter and The Common Pursuit.
Felicity Kendal‘s numerous theatre credits include Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers, The Real Thing, Hapgood, Arcadia and Indian Ink; Amy’s View, Humble Boy, Hidden Laughter, Tartuffe and, most recently, The Vortex. On television, she has appeared in Solo, The Mistress, Edward VII, Rosemary and Thyme, The Good Life (as Barbara Good) and Doctor Who (opposite David Tennant and Catherine Tate).
Nicholas Le Prevost‘s theatre credits include the title role in Peter Hall’s production of Uncle Vanya (Rose Theatre), The Philadelphia Story (Old Vic), The Wild Duck (Donmar Warehouse), Insignificance (Sheffield Theatres), Blood (Royal Court Theatre), My Fair Lady (National Theatre and West End) and An Absolute Turkey (Gielguid Theatre).
On screen, he has appeared in Margaret, Mary Whitehouse, Midsomer Murders, My Dad’s the Prime Minister, Silent Witness, The Vicar of Dibley and Poirot (TV); Bright Young Things, Land Girls, Shakespeare in Love and Clockwise (film).
Jasper Britton has not only worked extensively with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and at Shakespeare’s Globe, he has also appeared in Simon Gray’s Japes and Becket (both at the Theatre Royal Haymarket) and Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce (Aldwych Theatre). His most recent credits include Fram and Oedipus (National Theatre), Private Lives (Hampstead Theatre) and John Gielgud in Nicholas de Jongh’s Plague Over England (Finborough Theatre).
On screen, he has appeared in Nostrodamus, My Dad’s the Prime Minister, Murder in Mind, Highlander and Ever Decreasing Circles (TV); A Life with Bells On, Blackbeard and The New World (film).
Artistic Director of the National Theatre between 1987 and 1997, Richard Eyre‘s more recent credits include Hedda Gabler (Almeida Theatre) and Mary Poppins (West End and Broadway). His films include Iris, Notes on a Scandal and Stage Beauty.
The Last Cigarette is designed by Rob Howell, with lighting and projection by John Driscoll and music by George Fenton.
Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane continues in Trafalgar Studio 1 until April 11, 2009.
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